[Preacherman]

Went into my local gunshop today, and was talking to the gunsmith. He showed me a rather thoroughly destroyed S&W Model 25, and told me the story behind it. Seems that a customer bought this gun from them a month or two back (darn - he saw it before I even knew they had it!). He brought it back to them yesterday morning, with the cylinder split in two, the top strap bulged, etc. He wanted them to send it back to S&W for "warranty repair or replacement"!!!

The gunsmith inspected the gun, and informed the customer that he'd obviously used a very hot-loaded round, far in excess of pressure specs. The customer hotly denied this, insisting he'd only used factory ammunition. The gunsmith asked him "What factory ammunition?" The customer then told him that the store he went to was out of .45 Colt, but had sold him a box of .44 Magnum, and he'd wrapped the shells in duct tape so that they'd fit the Model 25's cylinder!!!

:cuss: :banghead: :fire:

I won't repeat the gunsmith's actual language about this customer... use your imagination! :D

[Betty]

Sometimes I can't help but laugh at other people's stupidity.
The guy is lucky he (and everybody else at the range) didn't get hurt.

[Kamicosmos]

wow. same type of guy that forces his VCR tapes in upside down...

[Quartus]

This forum needs a "Shaking head in wonderment" icon.


If you could bottle that kind of stupidity, it'd be a toxic waste.

[4570Rick]

Is anybody that stupid?




























Or are the gun grabbers so devious as to do this kind of crap just to make RKBA types look stupid? :scrutiny:

[Hand_Rifle_Guy]

That's nothing short of a crime.

It never ceases to amaze me that there are some people existing on this planet that natural selection has not deleted by having them, say, walk in front of a train.

I suppose it takes all kinds to make the world go 'round, but it cannot be denied that some of those kinds are nothing more than a waste of good oxygen.

Ill wishes are also directed at the thoroughly unscrupulous bozo that sold that thickwit mag ammo so he could make a sale. Destroying the guy's gun ensures that he will not be a repeat customer.



:rolleyes: :uhoh: :fire:

[Standing Wolf]

If you could bottle that kind of stupidity, it'd be a toxic waste.

Well, that, or you'd have essence of leftist politician.

[P95Carry]

That's about as crazy as it gets ......... incredible!!!:rolleyes:

[keyhole]

We have come so far, as to stop the process of natural selection. Now we keep the idiots alive, instead of letting them "off" themselves.

This guy was just lucky.:banghead: :fire:

[QuarterBoreGunner]

I... what?... no way.






This can't be...


Jesus wept.

[Freedspeak]

Well I guess he didn't make it into this years Darwin Awards.

I wish him better luck next year!

(Tounge firmlly in cheek)

[4v50 Gary]

I'd be happy to buy it as a wall-hanger for $50. Since it's destroyed, no paperwork is necessary, right?

[jsalcedo]

A friend of mine was telling me about a customer who loaded 7mm weatherby magnum into a rifle chambered for 7mm remington and went to go sight it in

Luckily the bottom rifle's reciever blew out instead upward into the shooters face.

Needless to say they forever banned that person from the range.

[PATH]

Ah! Proof positive that morons are alive and well. Let us hope this individual does not reproduce and more importantly he does not shoot on my range!:D

[Tamara]

You know, what amazes me is how stupid-proof folks like this are. They somehow manage to survive unscathed experiences that would kill a normal human deader'n a hammer. :scrutiny:

[Moparmike]

Lets hope he doesnt pro-create.

[DorGunR]

Tamara
God watches over drunks and fools.;)

[Tamara]

...then five gets you ten that this cat was doubly blessed. ;)

[DorGunR]

...then five gets you ten that this cat was doubly blessed.

Uh uh........no bet.:)

[Bill Hook]

It never ceases to amaze me that there are some people existing on this planet that natural selection has not deleted by having them, say, walk in front of a train.

Some of these people drive behind me, on my bumper, during my commute. I hope they pray a lot, because divine intervention is the only thing that will stop them before they run over me.

Would that folks like these only removed THEMSELVES from the gene pool. I'm afraid they'll take me with them.

[C.R.Sam]

Sadly...
I have noted a few uninformed counter persons trying to foist wrong "but close enough" ammunition off on customers.

Usually customer knows better.

But if two idjets team up.....kaboom.

Taping a round to make it fit a larger chamber goes back more than a century.

In some cases, Darwin works all too slowly.

Sam

[DeadCalm]

As someone here said, it takes all kinds to make the world go 'round. Some just make it revolve a little more slowly than others. Kinda reminds me of my childhood, shooting pellet rifles with a friend. A seal on the pneumatic pump rifle leaked, letting air through the muzzle and not holding a charge. With a pellet in the chamber he pumped the pistol to determine that the gun indeed leaked air through the muzzle. but he held it to his ear as he did so. Sure enough, the gun built enough back pressure with the chambered pellet to hold the seal until the pellet gave way. A nice shot to the temple followed with a superficial but impressive looking head wound furrow about an inch or two long right in front of the ear. Much head wound blood, etc. He went on to be a real gun safety fanatic, thank god. And boy I gotta tell you that thing really hurt. My parents understood it to be that I had fallen on a sharp rock. I told them later about blowing up the canoe on the lake that summer, but couldn't face my dad over a stupid stunt like that, having been severely taught how to comport oneself with guns. "Kids..." Sorrry dad, hope wherever you are you're not reading this or at least getting a good chuckle from it.

Ross

[Glockster35]

As my dear wife would say:

"There are far too many clowns, and not enough circus' "!:D

That's why I love her!

[jsalcedo]

I just read an old Skeeter Skelton quote:

Its my new tag line after reading this thread.

[tetleyb]

Is anybody that stupid?

In a word: YES!!!

[bogie]

A few years back, a fellow I knew, who could be a bit of a... well, let's just say it. He's an :cuss: , and Art's grammaw wouldn't like him.

He shows me a smokepole he's bought at a yard sale - some sorta Hawken reproduction. He's not into guns, but hey, he thought he was getting a deal... you know the type...

So, he whips it out, and informs me that he went over to a gun store a few miles away, and bought the bullets and powder and caps and everything, and that the guy had been nice enough to measure the bore so that he'd have the right bullets, and all the right stuff.

Then he pulled out a pound of Bullseye.

I just wonder what he did to piss off the guy at the gun store. I (sorta...) thankfully talked him out of using the Bullseye.

[Mute]

What an idiot! He clearly should have used teflon tape. They're tactical you know.

[QuarterBoreGunner]

When I was still in the business, sadly I had this happen with some salespeople working the ammo counter that were less than, shall we say, 'with the program'. (In their defense it was usually one the two girls that worked the range check in counter- great girls, knew and practiced the four rules, just not complete gun nuts- sometimes they would have to work the ammo counter).

The most common occurrence would be confusing .38 Smith & Wesson with .38 Special. Another would be .45 LC with .45 ACP; a customer would walk up and ask for .45 or .38 and well, you can see it coming. Never had a dangerous situation, a little difficult to get the .45 LC into the magazine of a 1911…

[RobW]

There are only two infinite things: the Universe and human stupidity, but with the Universe, I'm not so sure.

(Albert Einstein)

[Quartus]

:confused:


Wait a minute. The bullet diameter of a .45 Colt is .451 -.452, right?

And the bullet diameter of a .44 mag is .429.

That leaves a gap of .022 - .023, right?


So how did enough pressure develop to cause a kaboom? How deep are the lands on a Smith 25?

[Black Snowman]

And what about the Duct Tape! It can contain anything can't it ;)

Sorry, had to say it. For a ka-boom of this nature the bullet may not have even left the cylinder. The case would have burst as the bullet began to move without proper support of the chamber and if it burst un-evently (posilbly starting through the seam of the tape where there was less support) you have a directed high-velocity gas jet, just like a shaped charge explosive resulting in catastrophic metal failure. IE Ka-BOOM!

There are so many variables it's hard to keep track, but the guy was lucky. He might even educate himself after this, who knows.

[bogie]

Just had a brain wave...

Er... Would a .44 magnum cartridge FIT in a Smith 25? Could you rotate the cylinder?

[Skunkabilly]

The customer then told him that the store he went to was out of .45 Colt, but had sold him a box of .44 Magnum, and he'd wrapped the shells in duct tape so that they'd fit the Model 25's cylinder!!!

Hot dog, this is the first time in recorded human history duct tape actually helped break something! :p

[Keith]

Idiot! He should have wrapped the whole cylinder in duct tape!

Keith

[Tamara]

My gunsmith knows a guy who uses duct tape-wrapped .30-'06 shells in his NEF 12 ga. to bag his deer every year. My 'smith claims the guy is absolutely immune to reason on the topic, as he still has almost 100 rounds of '06 left, which he figures should be enough to get him his Bambi quota every year 'til he shuffles off this mortal coil. :uhoh:

I've heard of skinflints before, but that cat absolutely takes the cake.

[jsalcedo]

a guy who uses duct tape-wrapped .30-'06 shells in his NEF 12 ga. to bag his deer every ye

Excellent!

I can sell all my guns except for my Pardner and a roll of duct tape.

It would probably take me 1200 years to shoot all my ammo though.:D

[Orthonym]

It isn't the diameter so much as the pressure. The 45 Colt is a very low-pressure old black-powder cartridge(ca 14,000psi?) whereas the 44Mag is a modern smokeless load, right up there with some rifle cartridges. Also, the Model 25 was designed for the 44 to start with;, when they bored out the chambers for 45 Colt it left them VERY thin, especially where the cylinder's milled for the bolt, or stop, or latch, or whatchacallit.

[Edward429451]

Was at my friends who has many guns and he pulls out his little lever action 45 Colt for us to shoot. Hands it and an open box of ammo to my BIL who loads it up and proceeds to shoot (I wasn't paying attention to them as I was busy uncasing other guns.) Well he's on his 2nd or 3rd reload and still shooting so I wander over and start policing up the brass and immediately notice they look mighty bulged...Said "Wait!!" and sure enough, 44 mag...

No brass let loose, no unusual report, nothing. He was even hitting short range targets. BIL says well I guess you can use 44 mag in a pinch. I said methinks you were lucky.

Rifle wasn't damaged at all, dug up some real 45 Colt ammo and continued shooting. BIL's fault as he tooks the owners word for it without doublechecking before loading. Mr. manyguns made an honest mistake I think. He who holds the gun should check it.

It was prolly the ducttape that killed it. Note to self: Don't use ducttape on guns or ammo.:D

[Quartus]

It isn't the diameter so much as the pressure.


Vell, if you have a very loose bullet, where do you get the pressure? I think Black Snowman's answer makes sense. The Smith 25 can handle some pretty stout .45 Colt loads. While it was DESIGNED as a black powder load, those aren't exactly the norm these days.


Back a few years, I stopped in at a gun store in Garden Grove, CA. The owner had a Dan Wesson .357 barrel on display. He had milled the side off of it to show what was inside the bore. 6 - count 'em - SIX jacketed .357 slugs, neatly packed together. First round was a squib load, and apparently so was the shooter, as he didn't notice. Just kept pulling the trigger, wondering why he wasn't hitting the target. Doh!

Made a good testimonial to Dan Wesson quality! :what:

[bogie]

Er...

Campers...

Lemme say this again...

Isn't the Model 25 a .45_ACP_ moon-clip (or "autorim") revolver?

I suspect that something else may have happened.

[LeonCarr]

Somebody give me the duct tape guy's phone number, so I can call him and say "HEY YOU!!!! GET OUT OF THE GENE POOL!!!!!!"

Just my .02,
LeonCarr

[ShaiVong]

How much you want to bet that right before he pulled the trigger, he said to his buddy: "Relax, whats the worst thing that can happen?" or "Trust me, I've done this a million times". :D

[Meowhead]

originally posted by bogie:
Er...

Campers...

Lemme say this again...

Isn't the Model 25 a .45_ACP_ moon-clip (or "autorim") revolver?

I suspect that something else may have happened.

That's what I was wondering. .44 Mag is a bit longer than .45 ACP, isn't it?

The guy could've been using some weird handloads..like someone I know that used .38 Special wadcutters in a Webley chambered for .38 Long. They fit and worked well enough. At least I THINK they were .38 Long...the .38 Spl wadcutters were as long as these entire rounds.

[DorGunR]

Here, Billy Bob, hold mah beer.........hey, watch this.:uhoh:

[Daniel Watters]

Isn't the Model 25 a .45_ACP_ moon-clip (or "autorim") revolver?

Some S&W Model 25 are .45 ACP (25-2), others are .45 Colt (25-5). Most of the .45 Colt Model 25 have longer cylinders than their .45 ACP counterparts. However, I've even seen a couple of the short cylinder .45 Colt Model 25-3 revolvers fitted with a spare .45 ACP Model 25-2 cylinder.

[Orthonym]

Just now determined experimentally that a 45ACP gives ~ 3/8" headspace in a 25-5. :)

[Tamara]

...for a fresh horror story today, so here's a new one:

Some years back, a cat here in K-town got his hands on a nice 98k. His buddy says "Hey, I reload for my .30-'06, so if you get me some powder and bullets, I can roll you some shells for that Mauser." So the guy does. Apparently, his buddy was of the "powder is powder, right?" school of reloading. Also, the guy must've believed that cases were sized the way they were so that you'd know how much powder to stuff in them. At least, that was what was determined forensically, because, you see...

The guy came in with (what was left of) his Mauser, asking "Can y'all fix this this afternoon? Season opens tomorrow." "This" was a 98k with the floorplate, spring, follower and extractor blown to parts unknown, the locking lugs sheared off and the bolt wedged back firmly on the safety lug, and the reciever ring swollen like a half-inflated balloon. After having it patiently explained to him that his ex-Mauser was now a largeish paperweight, he bought a Remington 700 and left. My 'smith said, ominously, that he was "never heard from again," but he held out hopes for the guy's survival, since there were no reports of grisly hunting accidents in the papers in the next month or two... :uhoh:

[blades67]

Some guys just don't know when to buy their lottery tickets.::eek:

[Hand_Rifle_Guy]

Ok, I ran a cylinder-full of .41 Mags through my .44 Mag Mountain Gun. :o

Slightly bulged cases, less recoil than normal, bullets all over the landscape.

No harm done. Can you say "OOPS!?" Don't run the .41 and the .44 at the same time anymore.

Let's hear it for modern mettalurgy. I'm not the only one who's done this, but apparently the pressure ranges of the two mags are similar, and with the .020" bore difference, pressures were less.

Mostly, though, I started with a beefed-up .44 mag revolver. None of this thin cylinder stuff for me.

Except I wish I had an M-25 of mw own. One of these years...

[Greg L]

Some guys just don't know when to buy their lottery tickets.:

Sometimes wisdom comes in few words....

[C.R.Sam]

Red Green must have a gunnie audience. :)

I am having trouble understanding why the .45 Colt Model 25 blew with the .44 Mag in it. Don't see how it could get appreciable pressure.

Unless....the guy somehow managed to wrap the duct tape in such a manner as to greatly restrict the opening of the case where it was crimped. If it can't uncrimp....then get some pressure. Very unlikely.

Thought maby it took two shots to do it with the first being a squib in the barrel.....but the bullet should have just dribbled on out instead of sticking.

Puzzelment.

Sam

[BluesBear]

Shooting a .41 mag in a .44 mag would be no real problem since both are designed around approximately the same chamber pressures. Whereas the .45 Colt was designed around a chamber pressure that is, what, something like 10,00 C.U.P. LESS than the .44mag?

Now we don't how this Rocket Surgeon taped his rounds. If he taped them just enough to hold them in the chamber, then the duct tape would "give" just enough to let the brass split before the bullet had time to escape the resistance of the crimp. Consider that all factory .44 magnum loads are tightly crimped to prevent bullet creep during recoil.

Most common duct tape has a width greater than the length of a .44 mag round. With that in mind, to tape just the case portion of the round the tape would need to be trimmed. Now if said Rocket Surgeon were to, unwittingly (and the quantity/quality of his wits are definately in question here), duct tape the round PAST the crimp area he would effectively be taping the bullet to the case which would further exacerbate the already dangerous situation.



I still think there should be a mandatory class in Highschool called "Sh** You NEED To Know 101". This event should be added to the curriculum. I believe the longhand equation would be something like; Duct Tape + Ammo = Moron.